Takeout beverage containers and food containers have become increasingly popular as people find the need to transport food and beverages to the home, office, or other desired locations. Beverage cup trays or receptacles are often used to transport one to four beverage cups in order to prevent spillage. These trays are typically made of cardboard or other types of disposable material and are often square or rectangular in footprint with circular indentations for accepting the base of beverage cups. Takeout food containers come in many sizes and shapes which often inhibits carrying more than one container in a person's hand.
Due to the frequent need to transport multiple beverages cups, people often find it difficult to carry one or more beverage cup trays while simultaneously operating car and building doors. The beverage cups trays also tend to slide around, especially in automobiles, often resulting in spillage. Additionally, the need to carry other items such as writing instruments, cell phones, papers, and other items can further add to beverage transport difficulties.
Other types of takeout food and beverage containers pose a similar challenge when transporting more than one container at a time. When transported in collapsible bags, the containers tend to tip or slant off level resulting in spills and other unappetizing results. Rigid container carriers are unable to collapse in size or be reconfigured to accommodate different styles and sizes of food and beverage containers.
Containers and other devices for transporting takeout food and beverage containers are known in the art. These containers frequently are of a size and shape that may be able to accommodate one or more beverage cups, but are unable to securely transport one or more beverage cup trays, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,164 issued on Oct. 2, 2001 to Mears et al. for example. The structure comprises a compartment for storing food along with two compartments for storing two beverage cups. Often, using a container to carry food and beverage trays necessitates the cold beverages being placed in close proximity to hot food, or hot beverages being placed in close proximity to cold food, causing undesirable temperature changes.
Another beverage cup transporting container that is known in the art comprises an insulated bag that has a main compartment that is divided into six smaller compartments. Each of the smaller compartments is able to accept one beverage cup. An example of this type of beverage cup transport container can be found through a Division of A+ Containers with model number BEVC6. This container is only able to transport six beverage cups of a limited size and is not able to store or transport beverage cup trays. Additional time is therefore required to remove the beverage cups from the beverage cup trays and to place them into the smaller compartments in the cup transporting bag.
U.S. application Ser. No. 11/931,506, filed by Moran et al. describes an insert that is placed into a cooler container with a single main compartment which accepts a certain number of beverage cups. The insert is foldable in nature and thus after multiple uses, tends to demonstrate a diminished ability to secure beverage cups. This design also necessitates additional time to transfer beverage cups from the beverage cup trays into the provided insert of the cooler container.
People that frequently carry takeout beverage cup trays and food containers often resort to using a large box or making multiple trips in order to carry all of the beverage cup trays to a desired location. Upon transport in a moving vehicle, beverage trays often slide around and tip over. Beverage cup trays placed in a large box may slide around in the box, or even the box itself may slide around in the car.
Entering buildings carrying multiple takeout beverage cup trays and food containers can also become extremely difficult as often one hand is needed to open doors while entering the building. All of these inconveniences make it a challenge to transport multiple beverages cups, beverages cups trays, and food containers from one location to another.
Therefore, a need exists for novel food and beverage container transport devices that are able to maintain a level orientation of multiple food and beverage containers during transport. There also exists a need for container transport devices that are able to collapse in size, and be reconfigurable to secure food and beverage containers of different sizes and shapes. There is a further need for container transport devices that will facilitate the secure transport of one or more beverage cup trays in addition to transporting one or more food containers from one location to another without accidently spilling the contents from within the beverage cups. Finally, there exists a need for container transport devices that are able to secure and store personal items for the transporter such as pens, cell phones, business cards, and other items.